For those who didn't notice, Samsung totally didn't follow through with the original release date for its Galaxy Home smart speaker. Samsung said back in August 2018 that it was due out April — well, it's almost past May and there's nothing so far, and Samsung has remained quiet since.
Oddly, though, the company might be going on a different direction with regard to its smart speaker plans. Just-surfaced FCC filings reveal that the company is working on a smaller version of the Galaxy Home, possibly called the Galaxy Home Mini.
Galaxy Home Mini
CNET first spotted the filing, which was published Tuesday. Details there say the device will use Bluetooth 4.2, which is a bummer considering even 2017's Galaxy S8 uses the much newer and versatile Bluetooth 5.0 standard. Another notable tidbit is that the smaller Galaxy Home uses a microUSB port instead of USB Type-C, which has become the default in most modern, higher-tier electronics.
Beyond those details, not much else is known about the Galaxy Home Mini at present. It's not clear if Samsung is going to release this alongside the main Galaxy Home, at a later date, or scrapping the first one altogether in favor of this model. It doesn't help that Samsung has requested the Federal Communications Commission to keep most photos of the device and the user manual confidential for six months. Still, below is a sneak peek of the speaker:
Atop are volume buttons, it looks like, plus a power button and an AKG label, the Samsung-acquired Audio brand. To note, both Amazon and Google, arguably the biggest players in the smart speaker space, also sell smaller, cheaper versions of their smart speakers, which makes Samsung's Galaxy Home mini hardly surprising.
Galaxy Home Release Date
There's no word on when this device might arrive. The same can be said for the main Galaxy Home. The smaller device's FCC filing implies a release date is in the offing, though. As mentioned, Samsung originally promised an April release date for the Galaxy Home, which it's since pushed back "sometime in the first half of 2019." If it honors its word this time, then the device should come out no later than June. Make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more.
Are you itching to buy a Bixby-powered smart speaker from Samsung? Or will you be more willing to try a smaller, cheaper variant? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below if you have any thoughts!
